The present invention relates to electronic shelf label (ESL) systems, and more specifically to a system and method of sending messages to ESLs based upon priority.
ESL systems typically include a plurality of ESLs for merchandise items in a transaction establishment. ESLs typically display the price of corresponding merchandise items on store shelves and are typically attached to a rail along the leading edge of the shelves. A transaction establishment may contain thousands of ESLs to display the prices of the merchandise items. The ESLs are coupled to a central server from where information about the ESLs is typically maintained in an ESL database or data file. Price information displayed by the ESLs is obtained from a price look-up (PLU) data file and stored within an ESL price change record.
ESL systems may use a spool file to queue messages for transmission. Messages typically contain updated information for display by the ESLs. Messages are sent sequentially as they appear in the spool file. A disadvantage to this approach is that important messages are not sent in a timely fashion. The situation is further aggravated if the spool file contains many more messages of relative unimportance than messages of high importance. Also, if additional types of messages besides those containing updated information are spooled as well, the more important update messages are delayed even more.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method of sending messages to ESLs based upon priority.